Shipping-basket.



l. A. GREENLEE & H. WEGWART.

SHIPPING BASKET..

APPLICATION FlLED NOV- 30. 1911.

1 294,092, Patented Feb. 11, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

il-H HE "mum: FI 'QS cm. rwarmurum vusumawn. n. c.

1. A. GREENLEE & H. WEGWART SHIPPING BASKET. APPLICATION FILED NOV-30.1917- 1394092. Patented Feb.11,1919.

f5. 2 SHEETS--SHEEF 2 JAME$ A. GREENLEE, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, AND HERMAN WEGWART, or BURLING- 1 TON, wIsCoNsIN, AssIGNoIts r0 THE e & w PACKAGE COMPANY, OF CHICAGO,

ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

SHIPPINGBASKET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 11, 191 9.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, JAMES A. GREENLEE and HERMAN WEGWART, citizens of the United States, and residents of the city of Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, and the city of Burlington, Racine county, and State of Wisconsin, respectively, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shipping-Baskets, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention has relation to baskets and like receptacles, and particularl to baskets constructed on the diamond spfint principle, that are especially designed for. shipping divers commodities.

The primary object of our invention is to construct a splint basket that shall be capable of withstanding the hard usage to which packages are usually subjected in handling prior to shipment, during transit, and after reaching destination. Another object is the provision of a basket or like receptacle that combines durability and lightness and which is capable of being fabricated and sold without materially adding to the cost of such articles that are at present in use. And it is also an object of our invention to provide a shipping basket that meets fully all the shipping regulations.

It frequently occurs in stacking baskets filled with fish, vegetables and other commodities, in cars, trucks, or other vehicles, that the persons handling the same turn the baskets upon their ends or sides, thus causing the articles to shift to one end or side of the basket and thereby damaging them to such an extent as to render many of the articles unsalable when the reach destination. It is therefore an object of our invention to provide a tiltable shipping basket that is constructedso as to prevent its being stood upon its end or side, and when an attempt is made to do this, the basket will right itself and fall back and rest upon its bottom in proper position.

We prefer to accomplish the divers objects of our invention in substantially the manner illustrated in the accompanying drawings that form a part of this specification, wherein Figure 1 is a vertical sideelevation of a shipping basket or like article constructed in accordance with the principles of our invention.

Fig. 2 is a similar view of one of the ends of our basket. I

Fig. 3 is a top plan thereof, a portion of the cover being broken away for clearness.

Fig. 4: is an enlarged fraginental section taken on line 44 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 5 is an illustration of an attempt to place the basket upon its end and showing the disposition of the center of gravity with relation thereto.

Our shipping basket preferably comprises an outer body constructed of braided or woven veneer splints 10 and 11, disposed in what is commonly called the basket weave, or in the trade as the diamond braiding, and, cooperating therewith, is an inner body similarly constructed by braiding or weaving veneer splints 12 and 13. We prefer to unite these two bodies and interlock them so that they form an integral structure when finished and this is done by interweaving or interbraiding the splints 10 and 12 with their opposite splints 11 and 13. In this connection it will be noted we have shown the interweaving of the splints only at the corners of the basket, although this may be done at any desired location. However, so far as our invention is concerned, the structure may consist of a single body, as it may be found desirable to omit one of the bodies, and in this event there would be no interweaving of splints.

As illustrated in the drawings, the lower corners and corner edges of the basket are curved or rounded, as shown at .r, and the side and end walls slope inwardly or converge toward the bottom of the basket, the purposes whereof will hereafter more fully appear. The inner portion of the upper edge of the basket is bound by a suitable thin strip of material M and said upper edge is preferably formed into a rectangular shape, as shown. Suitable projections are provided around the outside of the upper edge of the basket for the purpose of tilting the body of the basket backwardly whenever an attempt is made to stand the same upon one of its ends or sides. These projections we have shown in the form of a frame consisting of end pieces 15 and side ieces 16, of com aratively wide material wood or the like and are secured to the outer edge of the basket in any suitable manner. The

corners or meeting portions of the strips are secured together by elongated strips of metal 20 of substantially L-shape, the shorter members whereof are nailed to the outer vertical surface of the ends of strips 15 and the longer members being nailed to the cor responding edges of the side strips 16, the nails preferably being driven through said strips and splints and clenched upon the binding strip 14:. This frame composed of strips 15 and 16 projects from the upper edges of the basket a distance suflicient to cause an overbalancing of the basket in either loaded or unloaded conditions whenever an attempt is made to stand the same upon its ends or sides, as is clearly illustrated in Fig. 5 of the drawings.

The closure or cover for the basket comprises a suitable rectangular sheet 17, of veneer or the like, to which longitudinally disposed edge cleats .18 may be secured, and this cover may be fastened upon the basket by nailing it to the projecting frame 15-16, by tying, or in any other suitable manner. Suitable straps or runners 19, 19, for the purposes of rigidity, strength, and protection to the splints, are preferably secured to the outside of the basket, as shown, by tacking them parallel to each other upon the bottom and ends of the body and inserting their ends between the upper edges of the splints and the end pieces 15 of the frame or proj ecting member.

We have illustrated and described our invention as applied to a multiple body basket. It, of course, is obvious to others skilled in this art, that the tilting feature is equally applicable to a basket that is woven of single splints and comprising but one body, and also that the entire body may be Woven of double splints all interwoven or interlocked,

without materially departing from the spirit of our invention. lVe desire it understood that such modifications and other obvious changes may be made Without materially departing, from the spirit of our invention as expressed in the appended claim.

As seen in Fig. 5 of the drawings, a basket constructed in this manner cannot he stood upon one of its ends or sides, for the reason that when this is attempted, the basket will be tiltedto the rear by the projection 15, so that the center of gravity (C.' G.) Will be located at a point beyond a plumb line from the point upon which the body of the basket rests, thereby overbalancing the same and causing the basket to return to its bottom.

What we claim as new is A basket having a convex curved portion at its bottom and a laterally extending rim of substantial width at its top, the convexity of the curved portion being of such shape that when the basket is supported thereon and on the rim the vertical line of support through the curved portion is brought a substantial distance from the plane of the bottom of the basket.

Signed at Chicago, county of Cook, and

of Illinois, this 17th day of October,

' JAMES A. GREENLEE.

HERMAN VVEGWART. Witnesses:

E. K. LUNDY, Jr., H. SLACK.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

